Public Health should be of utmost importance to the government of the day. Raids by the Food and Drugs Administration on sweet meats shops appear to be symbolic and bureaucratic, rather than part of a sustained committed drive to safeguard the health of the population. Previously a few raids were conducted on restaurants and fruit vendors but these have few and far between and just on a handful of establishments are raided, which not only makes them symbolic but raises suspicions as to why only a few establishments are targeted.
As the chief minister has declared in the case of the Town and Country Planning Department, that if he acts against corruption, no employees will be left in the department; similarly if one acts against large scale adulteration, rancid and inedible foodstuff marketed in Goa, Goans may have nothing to eat.
If the FDA seriously cracks down on all sweets and chivda vendors almost all their stuff will be found to fall well short of permitted additives and health standards. The same is the case with vegetable and fruit vendors on whom FDA conducts raids once in a blue moon, when these should be checked on a day to day basis, since it has serious implications for people’s health. In the last season there were almost negligible raids on forced ripened mangoes. Almost all fruits sold in the Goan markets are force ripened with non permitted chemicals. If one buys bananas, unlike before, all bananas ripen simultaneously within a day, when the previous day they were all green.
Mysteriously, there are no raids on beef, chicken and fish vendors to check for non hygienic and almost rotten stuff that is sold. It is well known that all broilers are injected with a dangerous cocktail of steroids and antibiotics. A recent study has claimed that this makes humans immune to antibiotics. Similarly, steroids hasten the hormonal growth of adolescents and has serious impact on their health. What research has the Goa FDA done on this serious misdemeanours?
The most shocking negligence has been non testing of fish that is sold in our markets and consumed by every Goan. How many days of refrigeration is allowed for the fish to be still edible and after how many days is the fish rendered inedible? For how long can the fish be kept out of refrigeration (in the market) so that it is still fit for human consumption? Similarly, is the beef and mutton we consume, processed hygienically and fit for consumption?
Does the FDA check on hygienic preparation of snacks at the Bhel puri stalls even in the city? One is witness to the puris being made and spread on cloth in the dingy and dirty houses of the bhelpuri wallas near the St Inez crematorium. In between the children of the vendors will grab a bunch of puris and run out to eat and the mother will grab them and put them back into the pile meant for sale at various locations in the city. Is there a standard for the oil which is to be used for making the fried items sold in the city and towns across Goa? How many times are they allowed to re-use this oil so that it does not become carcinogenic?
In Western countries, one can literally eat with eyes closed, as safety and hygiene standards are high because of enforced zero bacteria food standards. The FDA is the USA is the most feared. FDA in Goa is not known to create awareness on standards of hygiene in restaurants, for kitchens, ingredients such as different types of fat that a food can contain etc. Which are the mechanisms to complain against food brought at a supermarket, consumed in a restaurant or stuff purchased in the fish or vegetable market?
The levels of offences should also be notified as minor, major and criminal offences depending on the gravity of the harm the offence can cause to people, even leading to death by food poisoning.
Ensuring good health and improving the longevity of the population should be the primacy of the welfare state. The FDA has to get its act together, be proactive and show that it highest priority is the health of the people, to save them from the loads of adulterated foodstuff is dumped into Goa by the day.
